Some remote control devices (also called “remote controls,” or simply “remotes”) employ ultra-high frequency (UHF) signals to transmit commands to an electronic product being controlled. Since UHF signals are capable of penetrating walls and other structures within a house, the remote control device and the product to be controlled are allowed to be located in separate rooms. However, given the extensive range of these remote control devices, a remote control device intended to control one electronic product may instead unintentionally alter the operation of another product within range of the remote control device.
To remedy this problem, some UHF remote control devices now include a digital value preset at the factory that is used as an address to identify the remote control, thus allowing one remote control to be distinguished from another. For example, each remote control device may include its address within a command that is transmitted to the electronic product to be controlled. Upon receipt of the command, the product may then compare that address with an internally-stored address value, and execute the command only if the value matches the address included in the command.
However, problems may still occur if only a few distinct addresses are available, as the odds of two remotes having the same address may be significant. Further, allowing manual modification of a remote control address to solve addressing conflicts may still be problematic, as detecting such conflicts can be difficult, and mistakes in modifying the address values may occur.